An Old Fool
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: E/A AU. Lady Sybil runs into Sir Anthony leaving the garden party and tells a rather different story than her sister. Written for the EAST Alliance day on Tumblr.


**A/N:** Written for the EAST Alliance Day on Tumblr! Thanks to babageneush for the beta.

**An Old Fool**

* * *

He was an old fool.

He could just imagine Maud telling him so. Shaking her head at him for letting himself be so gullible.

He had amused her perhaps, with the car. Young people loved new inventions. Of course it hadn't been the old man sitting next to her, babbling on about his late wife that had caught her interest.

Lady Edith was young and beautiful, with the world at her feet. She probably had much younger and more interesting men lining up for her hand.

How she must have laughed when she realised _his_ intentions.

"Sir Anthony."

He sighed, his plans for a quick retreat thwarted as he turned to see young Lady Sybil beside him. "Lady Sybil," he greeted her with a tip of his hat. "I was just leaving, I'm afraid."

"Oh, so soon?" the young girl looked disappointed. "I only just saw you arrive. Were you not going to speak with Edith before you left?"

"No, no," Anthony muttered, forcing a smile, "I can't imagine I have much to say that would interest her."

Lady Sybil laughed, as if he'd told a funny anecdote. "Oh I doubt that. She was delighted you'd be here today. It's all she's talked about," she told him with a secretive smile, as if they were sharing a joke. "I think Mary's rather jealous."

The last sentence was said with a smile, a light tone. It was meant perhaps, as a shared joke between siblings. Anthony himself had a sister, whom he was rather close with, though no sibling relationship was devoid of rivalry.

Anthony found himself unable to laugh though, the words bringing up a memory he had forgotten.

"_We were as thick as thieves when we were young," he'd told Edith once, on a walk through his grounds when she'd asked after Mrs Chetworth. "Quite literally too. We would sneak into the kitchens while the servants had their dinner. I'd keep guard while she searched for leftover dessert."_

"_That sounds lovely," she had smiled, before looking away. "I always wished I had sisters I was closer too. I do enjoy Sybil's company but Mary and her are so close and Mary..."_

She had changed the subject then, and Anthony had noticed her hesitation, but not yet felt confident enough to pursue it.

Now, however...

"Lady Sybil," he began, "might I ask you something?"

"Of course." The girl smiled, happy to be of help.

"Your sisters, do they argue terribly?"

Lady Sybil blinked, the question clearly coming unexpectedly. Immediately he regretted it.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, "I've overstepped."

"No, it's alright," she assured him, nodding slowly. "I suppose Edith has said to you anyway. That they don't perhaps... get along as well as one would hope sisters do," she said, her tone careful.

Anthony nodded. Edith had been careful too, the sort of care one took when the topic was much more serious that the words suggested.

He chanced a glance back toward the eldest Crawley sister.

_Jealous_.

"Was Edith really wanting to see me?"

"Of course!" Lady Sybil smiled, clearly pleased to be back into more appropriate conversation. "You mustn't disappoint her. I'm sure she won't keep you long if you truly must leave," she added, with some confusion still evident on her face, but glad he had agreed to stay a little while longer.

Anthony looked at the young, smiling girl in front of him, her face open and genuine. He thought back to Lady Mary, older, wiser, unreadable. Harder.

And he knew she had lied.

It saddened him to think that Lady Mary felt it necessary to attempt her deception, and to hurt him in doing so. It seemed beyond him that mere jealousy could drive a young lady to such an act. Perhaps it was a symptom of their society, that young women saw their only value in which man would marry them, and therefore found their greatest weapon against each other in preventing that.

For looking at the young, innocent face of Lady Sybil he had no doubt she told the truth and Lady Mary had not.

Edith wanted him here.

Edith truly wanted _him_.

"Oh, here she is now." Lady Sybil smiled and waved, and Anthony turned to see his darling girl making her way towards them, her steps quick and eager.

His heart jumped.

Oh, he was an old fool.

"Sir Anthony," Edith greeted him with such a smile he felt it put the sun to shame.

If she was looking to avoid him she was doing it in quite the wrong way.

He felt guilty then, and even more foolish, for believing her sister's words. How could he have doubted her?

He smiled. "Edith, my dear, how lovely you look today," he said, unable to stop himself. Tradition perhaps dictated more small talk, maybe a comment on the weather. But when he looked at her, so beautiful, he could wait not one moment longer. "I wondered if I might trouble you for a walk?" he asked, offering his arm.

Edith blushed prettily, and took his arm. "I was hoping you would ask."

"The roses are looking particularly nice today," Lady Sybil told them, nodding towards the, rather private, garden and giving a knowing grin before sweeping off towards her other sister, whom everyone failed to notice was looking on in confusion.

"Shall we?"

Edith gripped his arm a little tighter and they set off together.

In a few minutes the world would be shaken around their ears, but first there would be a question, and a much longed for answer, sealed with a kiss, among the brightest roses Downton had ever seen.

None of which, Anthony reflected, held a candle to the beauty of the smile of his soon-to-be bride.


End file.
